Minimum Viable Woo, Trusting Curiosity & Navigating a Dark Night of the Soul with Tom Morgan

In this episode, I'm speaking with Tom Morgan — who after 15 years on Wall Street and experiencing what he describes as a "hellish midlife transition" (which is putting it mildly) has emerged with profound insights about human development and — especially relevant for this podcast – the nature of curiosity itself.

In this conversation, we explored:

🧠 How we might navigate the delicate balance between intellectual understanding and embodied wisdom, especially for high-achieving individuals seeking deeper meaning in their lives

🏔️ An insight about what he calls "intellectual recapture" — which is the tendency, especially among highly educated or successful people, to turn spiritual or embodied practices into yet another achievement to conquer.

⚡ Practical insights about designing personal experiments and the importance of what he calls "minimum viable woo" — finding ways to engage with transformative practices that don't require abandoning our critical thinking.

Official Links

👋 Follow Tom on Twitter/X @tomowenmorgan 📝 Read Tom's Writing at The Leading Edge ✏️ Apply to join the Leading Edge Community

Connect + Explore More from Jonny

🐦 Follow on Twitter/X @jonnym1ller 🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery 🪷 Order our deck of Calm Cards (these make great gifts) 📱 Check out Stateshift — our brand new iOS + Android app 📝 Take the Nervous System Quotient (NSQ) Self-Assessment (totally free) 💌 Sign up to The Inner Frontier Newsletter

🫁 Episode Sponsor — Nervous System Mastery

This is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our 8th cohort will run in Fall 2025 ~ and applications are currently open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything I've learned in recent years about creating the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing. It's run in an intensive cohort-based way since this is, in my experience, the most efficient way to embody and practice the protocols.

Previous students have shared how partaking improved their sleep and quality of relationships and tapped into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives. We've had over 1000 students have completed this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth — so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com

Further Ways to Support the Podcast:

🎙️ I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations (it's so much better than zoom for podcasting!) 🎧 I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend. 😎 RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference! 🤖 I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode show-notes + timestamps 📹 Want to create a Hollywood-quality home studio? Get in touch with Kevin Shen here & save $500 with code JONNYSENT500OFF 📝 Test out my favourite journaling app using journal prompts that have made a huge impact in my life.